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/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirundo_Province
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Kirundo: a measles epidemic that kills in silence
November 28, 2023 Leila KezaHealth
More than twenty cases of measles have been recorded since the beginning of November. Children affected and threatened by this disease are on oxygen while others have died, according to staff members at the main hospital in Kirundo (northern Burundi). The staff requests that the measles epidemic be declared so that various measures can be taken to combat this disease. (SOS Media Burundi)
According to information from staff at Kirundo hospital, more than twenty people, most of them children under 5 years old, have been diagnosed with measles.
“The commune which has many more patients is the Busoni commune. The Kirundo commune comes in second place,” specifies a source within the hospital.
This disease has appeared in this province since March, according to some nurses at Kirundo hospital.
“I cannot specify exactly the period of the appearance of cases of measles in this province but I remember that I saw the first case around March,” a medical technician told SOS Médias Burundi.
Overcrowded rooms
Pediatric rooms are overwhelmed.
On a single bed, two to three children are bedridden, their mothers who watch over them sleep on the floor.
“We are so overwhelmed by the number of children sick with measles. It looks like an epidemic that is not openly declared,” reported a trainee nurse.
“The doctors in charge do not want to talk about an epidemic. Perhaps this instruction comes from above so that funds cannot be concentrated in the same sector especially in the fight against this scourge,” said the nurse.
And, in fact, it is forbidden to talk about measles to patients and sick guards.
In order not to spread information related to this measles disease, nurses and laboratory workers are kept silent, as some sick guards observe.
“The disease must be declared an epidemic as we did three years ago for malaria,” demanded a service manager.
Cases of death from measles passed over in silence
Information from Kirundo hospital indicates cases of death.
“As the disease is almost new in the community, some have brought their children in critical condition. This is why some, especially those under 5 years old, did not survive,” said the same head of department.
Many children are on oxygen.
Several children, whether in the emergency department or in the pediatric common rooms, are on oxygen because they have breathing problems, with throat complications, reported another trainee nurse.
The most common problem: recurring power cuts
Children who are on oxygen risk death because the machines stop immediately and we have to wait for the power to return, which can even take hours before returning, lament parents and employees at Kirundo hospital.
Information provided by some members of the staff of this hospital explains that if measles is not declared an epidemic so that other necessary measures can follow, it will decimate the population of Kirundo province, with risks of extend elsewhere.
https://www.sosmediasburundi.org/20...epidemie-de-rougeole-qui-tue-dans-le-silence/
